Now in Granada

Typed Monday 19 May 2014

Today I type to you from Granada - home of the Moorish part of Spain.  Haven’t heard the song once since we have been here, which I think is a bit sad.  Kenny is very disappointed.

Our latest postion

After I raved on last time, we left the little park we were in near Sanlucar de Barrameda and headed for Rota as announced.  However over the past two days a strong wind had come up, and by the time we got to the Aire at Rota, the idea of staying in what would have been a great beachside parking overlooking the port across the mouth of the river lost all its appeal.  The wind was blowing 60 -70knots and dust and sand were spraying everywhere - like a sandstorm. 

So we decided to carry on.  This turned out to be a wise move, but we didn’t improve our position much.

Now passing through chocolate soil.  Crops appear to be wheat, potatoes (turned out to be baby sunflowers), leeks, market gardening.  Olives and wines - mostly grapevines - how can the world drink so much wine?  Lots of handsome heroes live around here.

Wind farm near Tarifa

It is worth noting that wind has huge effect on old camper.  When you hit on nose speed goes from 90 to 60kms in seconds.

A lot of Spanish bull

It was still hot and windy and the windage on port quarter of van (which is old and not hugely aerodynamic) was huge - driving was an unnecessary challenge, so we ‘chucked a righty’ and tucked in next to a cemetery wall in a little village while the van rocked and rolled in the wind.  Wind apart we passed a peaceful night - the neighbours were very quiet.

Wendy at the entrance to the Old Town in Tarifa

Next day moved on toward Tarifa to check out ferries to Morocco.  The senhor at the petrol station assured us that the wind would be gone tomorrow.

Coming out of cemetery, we bypassed Cadiz and San Fernando, which appeared to be big ports and very unappealing.  On the outskirts we saw salt and what appeared to be fish farming beside the road.  There were broad salt plains with canals cut for fish breeding (perhaps?)

Spent night in tiny town name unknown tucked up against the market wall cos travelling was awful.  Quiet night and wind has dropped.  High wind is normal in this area and there are lots of wind farms.  On to Tarifa - not sure if going to Morocco because the wind had made us unsettled and unsure about the ferry crossing unless it is dead calm, and being in Morocco if we are going to be subjected to constant sandstorms.

Tarifa was lovely.  Driving around it was great.  Roads outside the old city were wide and we had no trouble parking - not so in the old city where some of the streets were miniscule.  Took a wrong turn on the way out of town and passed Mick and Marg from two camps back going the other way.  We all waved madly, but like ships that pass in the night, we all kept on going in the direction we were headed.  All laughing our heads off.

As we approached Algeciras we looked at it and decided that it looked like an industrial city, and not very appealing, but we drove into the centre of town and did a quick tour anyway.  Came away unimpressed, but managed to find a great supermarket where we refreshed our supplies before heading on to our next port of call  -Gibraltar.

Check the price -  Sardines vs Salmon

The port of La Linea De La Conception is the Spanish half of the urban area that becomes Gibraltar (like Albury Wodonga), but you have to go through customs and immigration to go visit.  As it was still fairly windy, and we had no desire to go see Barbary Apes or climb The (very imposing) Rock so we did a quick tour of La Linea De La Conception, took lots of photos of The Rock, and then hightailed it out of town.  (Yes we know, we are not very good tourists).

The Rock of Gibraltar

La Linear was interesting, with good sized streets.  It has a busy harbour with many ships anchored our waiting for their turn at the wharf.  The water in the two large, yatch-filled marinas is very blue - maybe due to white sand underneath.  On Spanish side very industrial.

Traffic lights cause us great amusement (sometimes) - they go red and stay red for a very long time.  When they turn green they don’t stay that way for very long.  There are a lot of small, very new cars which would be lovely except for the scratches all down their sides - cost of living with tiny narrow roads line by stone buildings.  They fly down the streets in the old towns as if they were on motorways - no speed concession for cramped conditions

The wind had settled a little, but the moment had passed to go to Morocco.  A little disappointed, but not really concerned.  Didn’t want to go there with adverse weather.

From this point we are travelling on the Autovia Del Mediterraneo to Estepona

In south of Spain because it is so hot we think they have started taking afternoon siesta, which has not been an issue up until now.  We have decided that it is a great time to travel cos they are all off the road, and te traffic is very light - it is very light anyway, but at this hour of the day (3-5pm) it is lighter

It rained in the hills on the way to Estepona.  That was actually good because it washed off all the dirt we have acquired on the van from the dust storms.  Have had to wipe over everything inside as well, as the very fine dust has gotten into everything.

Wendy above the Mediterranean - Africa in distance

Costa Del Sol

Estepona to Marbella is very like the Gold Coast but mutliplied by 500%.  In fact it is called the Costa Del Sol (Coast of the Sun) and is heavy concentration of units and hotels and has no appeal for us at all.  Would hate to be there in the season.  We just kept driving until Kenny got a bit tired, then we pulled into a service road and found a spot at the entrance to a minor road where we set ourselves up for the night. As we sat there having our afternoon cup of tea/coffee, a guy in a motorhome came out of the little road and told us that there was a lovely spot at the end of that road on the beach.  So we followed the little road to its end and spent the night at Playa Bella on the beach looking across to Africa   It was very quiet and the view was lovely - after dark we could see the lights of Africa.

Lights f Africa from Playa Bella

Malaga is a thriving, vibrant, bustling city.  Nice place with lovely gardens and lots of jacarandas in bloom.  But a very modern city.  Had a drive through and around, and moved on towards Granada.

From Tarifa to this point we travelled through a lot of mountainous countryside.  The eastern coast of Spain had a very narrow coastal strip and the mountains rise quite sharply not too far inland.  Fortunately the roads, even the non motorways are very good quality and there are quite a few tunnels, so we are not going OVER ALL the hills, but only some of them.  The van is handling them all quite well - as long as we don’t get headwinds!!!

Travelled through lots of hills/mountains on our way to Granada and the crop for as far as the eye could see in any direction was olives.  The soil in these area is pretty awful and cannot imagine anything other than olives growing there.  Cannot imagine that many olives being eaten so think they must be for olive oil production.

Arrived in Granada yesterday and got ourselves set up in a camping 3.5km from the centre of town and next to the Bus Station.  Very handy.  We spent the afternoon doing the washing and cleaning, checking email etc and had a quiet night.  Wi-fi here is free, but barely available in the van - have to go to the office.  Toilets and showers are lovely and clean, but the showers are a push button job, and one button push gets you about 10 seconds worth of water.  Very frustrating and you learn very quickly to just lean on the button.

Fabulous street sign in Granada

Kenny at the Turkish bath house at The Alhambra

Spent the day wandering around Granada today.  It was a tad disappointing as we discovered that tickets for the Alhambra Palace, (which is the city’s main attraction reflecting its Moorish past) are in great demand.  This came as no surprise to us, but we thought that this early in the year it would not be a problem.  Wrong!!!  You have to start queuing at 6am to get tickets if you have not pre-booked online.  Well, as you know, I do not do 6am starts anymore (even if we had known this in advance), so we did not get tickets to see inside the Palacios.  The Palacio of Carlo V is free and is a museum, but we discovered that (apparently) ALL museums in Spain are closed on Sundays and Mondays, so we couldn’t go in there either.  To say I was not happy is an understatement as this city was on our must-do list.  Anyway, we wandered around the little streets of the old town and up into the Moorish quarter, and quite enjoyed ourselves anyway.

Tomorrow we are heading back down to the coast (literally, back down, as we have to pass through the Sierra Nevada Mountains) to near Almeria, where we hope to find a naturiste camping to stay for a few days.  I have just about got over the sunburn from Sanlucar, and plan to come home with a great suntan.

That’s it for now.  Will try to post again soon.

Keep well till next time.  

Having trouble posting - think I am running out of space.  Will delete some earlier posts.

Got it going by logging out and back in again.  Have deleted all posts from last trip as well.  I think I was just straining its memory.  Hopes it works now.

Cheers